The Horsemen

Ben-Hur Afghan style

Touted as a film about buzkashi, THE HORSEMEN is really about machismo as embodied by Uraz (Omar Sharif) in and out of competition, which his father (Jack Palance) understands all too well. A strange outing for Frankenheimer; the buzkashi scenes recall GRAND PRIX, but thematically it's a more ambitious film--though its ambitions are undercut by Dalton Trumbo's heavy-handed script and a choppy story with poorly drawn characters. Still, reasonably diverting, with good music and cinematography.